Handbook of Leisure, Physical Activity, Sports, Recreation and Quality of Life

450 Pages·2018·7.29 MB·English

by  Lía Rodriguez de la Vega

International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life
Lía Rodriguez de la Vega · Walter N. Toscano
Editors
Handbook of
Leisure, Physical
Activity, Sports,
Recreation and
Quality of Life
International Handbooks
of Quality-of-Life
Series Editor
Graciela Tonon, Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora and
Universidad de Palermo, Argentina
Editorial Board
Alex Michalos, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Rhonda Phillips, Purdue University, USA
Don Rahtz, College of William & Mary, USA
Dave Webb, University of Western Australia, Australia
Wolfgang Glatzer, Goethe University, Germany
Dong Jin Lee, Yonsei University, Korea
Laura Camfield, University of East Anglia, UK
Aims and Scope
The International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life Research offer extensive
bibliographic resources. They present literature reviews of the many sub-
disciplines and areas of study within the growing field of quality of life
research. Handbooks in the series focus on capturing and reviewing the
quality of life research literature in specific life domains, on specific
populations, or in relation to specific disciplines or sectors of industry. In
addition, the Handbooks cover measures of quality of life and well-being,
providing annotated bibliographies of well-established measures, methods,
and scales.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8365
Lía Rodriguez de la Vega
Walter N. Toscano
Editors
Handbook of Leisure,
Physical Activity, Sports,
Recreation and Quality
of Life
Editors
Lía Rodriguez de la Vega Walter N. Toscano
CICS-UP and Master Program in Social Physical Education Program
Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Humanities and Social
Universidad de Palermo Sciences
Argentina Universidad Nacional de La Matanza
San Justo, Argentina
UNICOM, Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Nacional de Lomas de
Zamora
Buenos Aires, Argentina
ISSN 2468-7227 ISSN 2468-7235 (electronic)
International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life
ISBN 978-3-319-75528-1 ISBN 978-3-319-75529-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75529-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018941102
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
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I dedicate this book to my parents, Ñoyta and Carlos, who by
example, compromise and love taught me what a good life was
about and also to my beloved professors, Carmen and
Fernando, whose work ethics and love of knowledge gave me a
fabulous perspective that enriched my life. Finally, I dedicate
this book to the wonderful opportunity that knowledge gives
me, as a real access to a Good Life.
Lía Rodriguez de la Vega
I dedicate this book to my dearest wife Graciela, who is the
support of my life, and to our son Pedro, who illuminates our
path.
Walter N. Toscano
We also dedicate this book to all the people to whom this book
arrives, with the hope that it will contribute to positive changes
in their lives and the lives of others.
Lía Rodriguez de la Vega and Walter N. Toscano
Preface
The book we present seeks to continue exchanges and to consider new ideas
on leisure, recreation, physical activity and sports. It brings together 23 chap-
ters, which summon authors from countries around the world. It is divided
into two parts; the first of them is dedicated to leisure and recreation and
contains 14 chapters.
In the first chapter, M. Joseph Sirgy, Muzaffer Uysal and Stefan Kruger
signal that leisure well-being is satisfaction in leisure life in a manner that
contributes to subjective well-being. They develop a theory of leisure well-
being that explains how leisure activities contribute to leisure well-being and
ultimately quality of life.
In the second chapter, Takashi Inoguchi analyses leisure in relation to
quality of life as surveyed in the Asia Barometer, the only quality-of-life
focus survey, covering the entire Asia (East, Southeast, South and Central)
with open access policy in the world. Following the conventional conception
of leisure –defined as one of human activities outside work duties and family
chores to re-create daily life – he analyses the satisfaction with leisure in rela-
tion to quality of life.
In the third chapter, Gwyther Rees approaches the way that children use
their leisure time and how this affects their well-being. The chapter focuses
on children’s leisure time and activities in a sample of 16 countries across
four continents, using data gathered through the international Children’s
Worlds survey.
In the fourth chapter, although many studies have reviewed the importance
of recreational activities for increasing well-being and quality of life, Denise
Benatuil focuses on the particular case of the non-formal education and rec-
reation place within the Jewish community, usually run by Madrichim, whose
role involves not only recreational activities but also a prominent social posi-
tion and the transmission of values and traditions of the religion.
In the fifth chapter, Sabirah Adams and Shazly Savahl focus on merging
positive psychology and environmental psychology (sustainability) by
exploring children’s recreational engagement with nature and the influence
on their subjective well-being. The chapter details two studies conducted in
the Western Cape of South Africa, in one rural and two urban communities
using participatory methodologies with children.
In the sixth chapter, considering that leisure time and community space are
a key aspect of children’s overall well-being and directly related to their qual-
ity of life, Carmel Cefai explores the views of Maltese children on how they
vii
viii Preface
make use of their free time and on the relevant spaces and facilities available
for them in the community.
In the seventh chapter, Leena Haanpää and Piia af Ursin investigate the
relationships between child subjective well-being and leisure time by exam-
ining how family togetherness is connected to child activity on leisure time.
In the eighth chapter, Diana R.  Feldhacker, Shana Cerny, Barbara
L. Brockevelt and Michael J. Lawler explore the occupations of children and
youth and discuss how engagement in these occupations relates to and affects
health, development and well-being.
In the ninth chapter, Graciela Tonon, Claudia Mikkelsen, Lía Rodríguez
de la Vega and Walter Toscano show some results of a project for the study
and the measurement of well-being and quality of life of boys and girls of
8 years old, living in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, using the
International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB) and focusing on the
results obtained for the dimensions: friends, use of free time, more about you
and your life, facts of life and the future.
In the tenth chapter, Lorena Ramírez, Jaime Alfaro, Pauline Heine, Patricia
Easton, Gabriel Urzúa, Blanca Amo, Francisca Valdebenito, Pablo Rojas,
Verónica Monreal and Andrea Jaramillo analyse the meanings of recreation
and use of free time and its relationship with life satisfaction from the per-
spective of Chilean children and adolescents aged between 10 and 18, using
the technique of content analysis and the open coding orientations of the
grounded theory.
In the eleventh chapter, Antonio José López López intends, through in-
depth interviews, to show the perception of the rural young people of
Colombia’s Andean High Mountain with respect to leisure and the different
activities necessary to achieve, through this, to contribute to the enjoyment of
what they consider a good life and adequate social well-being.
In the twelfth chapter, considering that the study of ageing processes has
gained increased attention in recent years, partly due to the growth of this
population group, and some lines of research have emphasized the concept of
active ageing (Diener and Chan 2011), supporting the idea that older adults
should develop their abilities through activities that make a contribution to
society, María Laura Capiello and Juliana Laurito describe an intervention
programme called Health Volunteer Promoter Course for Older Adults and
discusses its features, the line of work adopted and the activities carried out
by the participants as their social and community-based participation is
encouraged and training is provided on an ongoing basis.
In the thirteenth chapter, Matías Adrián Gordziejczuk and Claudia Andrea
Mikkelsen present the state of the art of the geographical study corresponding
to leisure space and quality of life, seeking to investigate afterwards the pos-
sibilities of its overall application in the empirical field. They also inquire on
the territorial imbalances which can be perceived as the product of carto-
graphic overlapping spaces characterized by holding a unique predisposition
towards the functionality of leisure and levels of quality of life, at the same
time relating to the rates of population growth, considering Mar del Plata
(Buenos Aires province, Argentina) as a study area.
Preface ix
In the fourteenth chapter, Vicente Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Fermina Rojo-
Pérez and Gloria Fernández-Mayoralas approach active ageing placed in
relation to the most important domains of quality of later life, self-assessed
by the individuals. They analyse the profile of older adults in relationship to
their involvement in leisure and social and community participation activi-
ties, as factors that promote an active ageing to enhance quality of later life.
In the fifteenth chapter, Óscar Figueroa gives us the possibility to extend
the reflection to key historical sources, tracing the development of the ideas
of happiness, well-being, etc., from non-Western countries. He explores the
specific case of the ancient Indian culture and its advancing of a number of
ideas on what a good life should be like and be composed of.
The second part of the book is dedicated to physical activity and sports and
contains nine chapters.
In the sixteenth chapter, considering the idea that “exercise is good for
you”, so ingrained in Western thinking that it has the status of lore, Robert
A. Cummins examines the literature from a critical methodological perspec-
tive coupled with current understanding of subjective well-being, being cen-
tral to this examination is the theory of subjective well-being homeostasis.
In the seventeenth chapter, Walter Toscano presents physical activity
related with health in terms of a theoretical proposition of quality of life, that
require an inter-discipline multifaced approach, as well as contextualization
of the analysis of quality of life from a Hippocratic perspective, including
climate, geography, economic and political conditions, in the study of per-
sons’ lives. In this regard, and though 25 centuries have gone by, may be
asserted that the Hippocratic theory is still as updated as it was then.
In the eighteenth chapter, Helena Águeda Marujo, Sónia P. Gonçalves,
Luís Miguel Neto, Patrícia Palma and Miguel Pereira Lopes focused on two
studies that were undertaken in two different samples of eight European
countries. The aim of these studies was (1) to develop and validate, according
to psychometric standards, an online self-administered instrument to measure
the variables related to what is to “Live well” (the Live Well Index, LWI),
taking into consideration four major domains: to Move Well, to Eat Well, to
Feel Well and Perceived Health; and (2) to investigate the particular role of
physical activity in a life well lived, and to develop and validate motivational
profiles for doing and sustaining the practice of physical exercise (aspira-
tional profiles). Implications for the study and promotion of quality of life,
supported in these pillars, are addressed, in particular in what concerns the
role of physical activity for quality of life and how to promote exercise in
accordance with people’s specific motivations.
In the nineteenth chapter, Anand Singh makes a reflexive and researched
account of a living experience that focuses upon juxtaposing conditions in a
society still divided by race and class. He considers the middle- class South
Africans who are conscious about maintaining their quality of life against the
numerous odds that characterize South Africa’s contemporary sociopolitical
conditions.
In the twentieth chapter, using longitudinal data from the German Socio-
Economic Panel (for the period 1984–2011) for a large sample of individuals
(with disabilities or not) aged 16 or over, Ricardo Pagan analyses the effects
x Preface
of taking part in active sports and its intensity (i.e. never, seldom, monthly,
and daily/weekly) on life satisfaction, particularly testing two different
hypotheses: (a) participation in sports increases individuals’ life satisfaction
and (b) the effects of this participation on life satisfaction are different for
people without and with disabilities, being greater for the latter group.
In the twenty-first chapter, Eva-Maria Riso and Jaak Jürimäe sustain that
the knowledge of the importance of physical activity (PA) during childhood
and adolescence has increased internationally, but physical inactivity of chil-
dren and youth is still a growing problem all over the world. To compile the
present chapter, the available data about the studies with Estonian school
children were used and compared with contemporary related data obtained
from studies with children from foreign countries. Their present thematic
review includes the contemporary data of objectively measured PA studies of
Estonian schoolchildren, which were compared to the results of peers in other
countries, enabling to assess the position of Estonian children in the world
according to their PA habits.
In the twenty-second chapter, Diane E. Mack, Philip M. Wilson and Katie
E. Gunnell seek to provide an overview of the physical activity – well-being
literature with evidence attesting to this relationship in individuals living with
osteoporosis also considering recommendations for health researchers which
address the specific limitations and gaps currently noted in the literature
expressly designed to examine this relationship.
In the twenty-third chapter, Gonçalves Câmara, Guimarães Alves and
Anziliero Arossi intend to assess whether contextual influences on practice of
physical activity and sports among adolescents – as it is the case of practice
of sports by important people in their lives, encouragement to playing sports
from important people in their lives, the importance of and reasons for play-
ing sports among adolescents, and their intention to play sports in the future –
predict psychological well-being and life satisfaction in this population, and
whether effective practice of physical activity and sports by adolescents work
as a mediating variable in these relations.
In the twenty-fourth chapter, Leticia Villarreal Sosa looks for understand-
ing how school and community activities shape the content and meaning of
students’ social identities and how those social identities influence their qual-
ity of life and engagement in school, specifically, to understand from stu-
dents’ own lived experience and how they experience quality of life. Her
study is informed by a borderlands perspective and social identity theory and
uses a qualitative design drawing from the Student Life in High Schools
Project (SLP), a longitudinal study of the transition to high school.
We want to thank all the authors who participated in the book, with the
hope that this joint production will allow us to continue advancing in the
knowledge of the addresses issues, with the contributions of other realities
and disciplinary perspectives also.
Buenos Aires, Argentina Lía Rodriguez de la Vega
Walter N. Toscano